


Our Grace is Multiplied

by sophiagratia



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiagratia/pseuds/sophiagratia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nerys finds her family. Or: Keiko laughs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Grace is Multiplied

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmic_llin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/gifts).



> Title taken from [Three](http://www.gaiaconsort.com/GaiaConsort_Secret_Voices_06_Three.mp3), by Gaia Consort.

Keiko laughs.

Which is the very last thing Nerys expected.

Not least because it’s the exact same reaction Jadzia had, when she finally got up the nerve to tell her what it felt like to have Miles’ hands on her shoulders, to daydream of a future life with Miles. And with Keiko. Which is the part she hasn’t quite gotten to, now, with Keiko. Keiko and her astonishing laugh.

Nerys sneezes. One, two, three, Keiko nods – and laughs – with each sneeze.

‘Oh, Nerys,’ she says, with a hand on her shoulder. Which means that she’s picked up on her discomfort – not that that would be difficult, tense and full of stuttered, voice-trembling half-statements as she’s been.

Then another surprise, which is Keiko’s lips warm and kind on her own. She sneezes again, and Keiko’s still laughing, but her thumb across Nerys’s cheek softens the moment. To steady herself, Nerys takes a moment to sit up and cross her legs – an act that grows harder every day, it seems, as her body expands and changes in ways she never anticipated.

‘You’re –’ Nerys, breathing deep, recovering, takes Keiko’s hand in her own. ‘You’re really not angry?’ To her surprise – is she ever going to stop being surprised? – Keiko’s broad laughter fades into a kind headshake.

‘How could I be angry, Nerys?’ She lays their hands across Nerys’s belly. The small, living, growing thing inside her is kicking, as though it can sense Nerys’s pounding heart and short breath. ‘When I said I wanted our home to be yours, when I said I wanted you to be part of this family, I meant it. And all that might come with it.’

‘But – he’s your _husband_ , I thought, I mean – ’ And Keiko laughs again, this time with her habitual eye-roll.

‘I’ve known Miles a long time, Nerys. I knew before he did that he wanted you. And I hoped’ – she squeezes Nerys’s hand – ‘that you’d want him, too. That you’d want us. And everything that might come with us.’ It’s so very much everything Nerys never dared to hope, never dared to expect, that she can’t speak. Instead, she sneezes. Keiko waits her out, then presses a kiss to her temple. ‘See? We’ll find our way in this, Nerys.’

The door sighs open, and in comes Miles, and when he sees them on the couch, hand-holding, flushed and smiling, his expression flashes through affection, then amusement, then a sudden fear. Nerys can practically see the clench in his gut, his throat. He meant to tell Keiko this evening, too, she knows, sudden and strange but she knows it. And now he fears that he won’t have the courage. For him, for his sweet, confused sake, she jumps into the breach of their silence.

‘I told her, Miles. I told her. It’s okay. Come here.’ He looks as she must have, when she spoke her confession and Keiko just laughed. Marvellous Keiko.

He kisses his wife, with that stupefied not-yet-quite-a-grin on his face. Nerys reaches for his hand. He looks at her. He looks at Keiko.

Keiko laughs.

‘Really, Miles. After all this time, all we’ve discussed about what we want from this family, couldn’t you have just talked to me about it?’ They have a routine. Keiko’s wry smile, Miles’s loving scoff.

‘I intended to, Keiko. But this one, as usual, is one step ahead of me.’ He gives Nerys a cautiously admiring glance. She tugs his hand, suddenly grinning, so irrepressibly grinning, with giddy relief, and the presence of them, and the growing knowledge that perhaps she can, after all, have all she desires. She tugs his hand, and he takes the cue, collapsing down on the couch next to her, finally smiling. She grips the back of his neck and kisses him, hard. Keiko’s thumb on her knee is tracing lazy circles, Keiko’s hand clasps Miles’s across her belly, Keiko’s lips fall soft on the base of her neck, Miles’ fingers thread through her hair and his kiss is comfort and fulfillment and hope, all in one.

The baby kicks.

And yes, Nerys thinks. Yes. She can have this, truly, this and all that comes with it.


End file.
